It took David a moment to gather his wits about him and remember that they had been there at all.  When he'd recovered from the residual temporal energy  he felt himself begin to shake.  It wasn't a good sign.  His legs gave way beneath him as he realized that he had given away his heart to someone he could never be with, and he sank to the floor in a crushing despair.

   Mimi appeared a few minutes later.  She had been sitting quietly at her table when a sudden feeling of dread that something terrible had happened to her twin.  She was supposed to sneak out and meet her boyfriend by the giant cock statue in front of the restaurant, but she was filled with an urgency to find her brother instead.  She instinctively headed in the direction of the back room and found him in a crumpled heap in the middle of the floor.  Completely alone.

    "David!"  She rushed to him.  She pulled him into her arms and rocked him back and forth as silent tears streamed down his face.  Her brother had always been stoic around her.  He was second in command at their house as the second biggest breadwinner next to Oscar.  He had remained stolidly silent even while enduring his father's shouting and his mother's crying when he had come out to them. She had never seen him so upset about anything.

    "What happened?"  She gasped as he eventually seemed to calm down long enough to answer.

    "It wasn't enough time," he said through a choked sob.

    She looked at him strangely then eyed a discarded Snoopy costume that lay in the corner. 

    "Aren't you a little old for that?"  She asked trying to brighten his mood.

    He only broke into tears again.

****
    
    Mimi never could tease out of him what had happened that day to upset him so, and it bothered her.  There was a change in him that only she seemed to notice.  Her father was happy that David had seemed to have given up on his idea of becoming a Landscaper to provide for the family, and instead threw himself head long into his schoolwork.  Where he had only been average he was suddenly excelling.  It wasn't easy for him at first but he eventually found his niche as he took on his advanced chemistry class.

    His parents were amazed.  Mimi was just surprised.  David was the smartest person she knew when he set his mind to learning something.  She had never suspected he would set his mind on chemistry.  He finished out the year and got a scholarship.  He was the first Rodriguez to go to ever go to college. 

    Mimi found him in his room one day, staring at a painting that had been given to him by a friend named Jason.  He often entertained friends since that day at Knott's Berry farm.  They weren't the usual working class kids that he had hung out with before.  Catherine had graduated the year before, she was studying ecology and was just becoming active in animal rights protests.  Jody was a 25 year old server at the Knott's Berry Farm Restaurant who stayed at home and took care of her ailing mother.  Occasionally she was accompanied by a man in his late twenties who wore glasses; her boyfriend.  Ned had once worked at the restaurant as well, but he had since quit and was concentrating on his skateboarding career.  He wanted to go pro he said, and he hit on MiMi with abandon.   She liked his new friends, and they were all nice people, but she had no idea where he had met them or when, and it wasn't like her not to know what her brother was up to.  He was her twin.  She thought they knew everything about each other, but there was something missing between them ever since that fateful day when she had found him  at brunch completely distraught and babbling nonsense about  not having enough time.

    She walked up to the painting that day and wondered what he saw in it.  It was  a strange surreal cityscape filled with hyper-realistic golden towers.  Four orange circles depicting suns were floating in the back ground.  Jason had given it to him one day, and it had almost caused another avalanche of tears.  Whenever he looked at it his eyes filled with a desperate sadness. 

    "What happened to you that day?" Mimi finally asked.  She was getting desperate herself with her brother becoming increasingly closed off and distant towards her.

    "I fell in love."  He said simply.  She didn't believe him at first, even though it explained a lot of his behavior.

    "Is that why you haven't..."

    "Hooked up with anybody lately?"  He completed her sentence.  "Yeah."

    "But...you didn't say anything," she said.  "I would've known if you were dating somebody!"

    "You wouldn't have known him," David said.

    "I thought you weren't hiding anymore," she replied.  "You know Mom and Dad said you could bring home anybody you want.  They're not going to judge you."

    He laughed bitterly at her.  "It's not that simple, Mimi.  I'd love to bring him home, but I met him at that brunch.  He doesn't live here."

    "How could that be possible?" She wondered.  "You were gone for less than ten minutes."

    "Or two weeks," he replied.  She frowned at him.

    "You're talking  nonsense again!"  She said.  "I don't know what's wrong with you David!  All these riddles.  You and I used to talk.  We used to know each other.  Now...now...there's like a part of you I can't feel anymore.  Tell me what happened!"

    She sat with him on his bed and clutched his hands in hers.

    "I can't," he said.  "I want to, but I can't.  It's against the rules."

    "What rules?"  She said, becoming increasingly agitated. 

    "I just can't.  He's gone."

    "Has he gone so far away that he can't even call you?"  She replied, brimming with indignation for her brother.

    He smiled ruefully and told her the truth.

    "He lives there." He pointed at the painting.

    She stared at it; then she stared at him.  Quickly becoming infuriated, she threw his hands away and stood up.

    "How dare  you fuck with me, David Guadalupe Rodriguez!  It isn't funny!"

    "It's not funny," he replied.  "I knew you wouldn't believe me.  That's why I can't tell you."

    "Why should I believe you?  You're telling me you're in love with invisible men who live in a painting!"  She scowled.  "You've fucking gone insane.  What did they put in those mimosas?"

    "Champagne and Boysenberry juice," he replied.  "Sit down, Mimi.  I'll tell you everything, and you can believe me or not, but hand to God, it's the honest truth."

    She sat down timidly, afraid of more of her brother's clearly insane lies.  She looked him in the eye and he spoke.

    "I've  been to the future," he said.